Waiting times for pain management services
Quarter ending 31 December 2025

About this release

This quarterly release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents statistics on waiting times for pain management services within NHS Scotland. It includes statistics on the number of referrals to these services, the number of patients seen at a first outpatient appointment, the length of their wait before being seen, the number of patients who were still waiting to be seen at the end of the quarter, and how long they had been waiting. These services provide chronic pain assessment and management and are delivered by multi-disciplinary teams.

The ways in which pain management services are delivered has changed from a traditional focus on outpatient appointments at consultant-led clinics to a multi-disciplinary approach to help patients manage their chronic pain. This is the second release of statistics from the new extended data collection on all first appointments with pain management services (medic, i.e. consultant or doctor, physiotherapist, nurse, multi-disciplinary team and information session) to reflect the alternative pathways now on offer to patients. A definition of a pain early information session is available in the Glossary in the main report.

In 2023 the Scottish Government published revised Waiting Times Guidance, with the aim of ensuring consistency in how waiting lists are managed. One board, NHS Ayrshire and Arran, has implemented the revised calculations affecting the time period covered by these statistics. We have included some detail in the 'Further Information' section below. Full details can be found in the main report.

Main points

• During the quarter ending 31 December 2025, 5,657 patients were referred to a pain management service. This compares to 5,791 referrals in the previous quarter, a decrease of 2.3%, and to 5,486 a year ago in the quarter ending 31 December 2024, an increase of 3.1%.
• During the same quarter, 2,949 patients attended their first outpatient appointment with a pain management service. This compares to 3,510 patients in the previous quarter, a decrease of 16.0% and to 2,692 patients seen a year earlier in the quarter ending 31 December 2024, an increase of 9.5%.
• Of those seen at a pain management service in the latest quarter, 51.8% of patients waited 12 weeks or less to be seen, compared to a quarterly average of 56.2% in the first three quarters of 2025 and 57.9% in 2024. The proportion of patients who experienced longer waits of more than 52 weeks has decreased when compared to the first three quarters of 2025 but is higher than the quarterly average of 2024. In the latest quarter, this proportion was 8.7%, compared to an average each quarter of 13.2% between January and September 2025 and 6.2% in 2024.
• In the most recent quarter, the proportion of patients whose wait ended when they attended a pain early information session is similar to the first three quarters of 2025, whilst the proportion has increased when compared to 2024. Of those seen at a pain management service in the latest quarter, 34.5% of patients attended a pain early information session as their first appointment, compared to an average per quarter of 33.0% between January and September 2025 and 27.0% in 2024.

Trend chart showing data from quarter ending 31 March 2024 to quarter ending 31 December 2025 with bars showing the number of patients seen per quarter. Each bar is broken down by the type of clinician seen: Pain Early Information session (darker blue bar), Medic (blue bar), Physiotherapist (dark grey bar), Nurse (pale grey bar), MDT clinic (dark magenta bar) and Other (pale magenta bar).

Close

Number of patients seen for a first appointment at a pain management service by the type of clinician seen from the quarter ending 31 March 2024 to the quarter ending 31 December 2025

• On 31 December 2025, 6,275 patients were waiting for their first appointment at a pain management service. This is a decrease of 3.3% compared to the previous quarter, when there were 6,490 patients waiting and of 3.2% compared to a year ago on 31 December 2024, when there were 6,484 patients waiting.
• Of those waiting to be seen at the end of each quarter, the proportion of patients who had been waiting 52 weeks or more for their first appointment has decreased. At 31 December 2025, 2.0% of patients had already been waiting 52 weeks or more, compared to a quarterly average of 5.9% between January and September 2025 and 6.7% in 2024. In the most recent quarter, 104 out of 125 of these patients were waiting to be treated in NHS Tayside. Staff vacancies are reported as a factor that has contributed to some patients experiencing longer waits.
• In the most recent quarter, the proportion of patients who were waiting to attend a pain early information session as their first appointment has decreased when compared to the first three quarters of 2025 and to 2024. This was 15.9%, compared to an average of 24.8% between January and September 2025 and 21.0% in 2024. This is due in part to the pain early information sessions in NHS Grampian being replaced with an information video in November 2025, which patients can view whilst they are waiting to be seen at a first outpatient appointment.

Background

Chronic pain is defined as pain that carries on for longer than 12 weeks despite medication or treatment. Further information on chronic pain can be found on the NHS Inform website.

Statistics on the length of wait in this publication are reported against the national 12 week new outpatient standard. This was agreed at the Pain Management Task Force meeting in December 2024.

Data presented here have been adjusted for periods of patient unavailability.  National guidance sets out the rules associated with calculation of adjustments for waiting times.

To enable health boards to apply 2023 Waiting Times Guidance calculations to aggregate data submissions, updates to health board IT systems, as well as changes to local processes, are required. Boards will implement these changes at different time points locally over the next 12 to 18 months. NHS Ayrshire & Arran are the first board to have implemented the current guidance into their patient management system on 01 October 2025. As a result, we expect no change to the number of patients seen or waiting to be seen. It is estimated that around 2.8% of wait lengths are affected for pain management services meaning that they are likely to be shorter under the new guidance. This is approximately 0.2% of pain management service waits across NHS Scotland.

Some pain management services took part in the waiting list initiative to reduce waiting times ensuring that by March 2026, no one is waiting longer than 52 weeks for their first outpatient appointment. Further information can be found on the Scottish Government website: Improving access to treatment - NHS Scotland operational improvement plan - gov.scot.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 9 June 2026.